Supervisor Wiener Announces Legislation to Ban Public Spending in States with LGBT Hate Laws

Posted on April 12, 2016

Ordinance will target not just travel for official city business, but will also ban contracting with companies in states that legally sanction discrimination against the LGBT community

San Francisco – (April, 12 2016) Today at the Board of Supervisors meeting, Supervisor Scott Wiener will announce that he is drafting legislation to prohibit City spending in states that have passed LGBT hate laws. The legislation will statutorily ban city sponsored travel to states with LGBT discriminatory laws, codifying Mayor Edwin Lee's executive order, and further make San Francisco the first jurisdiction to ban city-funded contracting with companies that are headquartered in these states and to ban purchase of goods and services produced in these states. Supervisor Wiener is collaborating with Mayor Lee on this legislation, who recently took the lead in creating Mayors Against Discrimination, which is a coalition of mayors formed to fight laws that discriminate against LGBT people. This would apply to recent laws passed in North Carolina and Mississippi.

“Taxpayer dollars should not be funding travel to or spending in states that relegate LGBT people to second-class status,” said Supervisor Wiener. “A despicable wave of anti-LGBT hate is rolling over parts of the South and Midwest. San Francisco needs to take a stand to show these states that these kinds of laws are unacceptable, and that we mean business. There need to be economic consequences for states that attack our community.”

Recent discriminatory laws that have been passed include North Carolina’s law which bans cities from passing statutes to protect LGBT people and requires transgender people to use public bathrooms corresponding with the gender on their birth certificate. Mississippi also passed a law that allows businesses to deny services or goods to gay and transgender people.

The ordinance being drafted will contain a limited process for a department to appeal the ban, which the City Administrator can grant based on certain findings. The legislation will be introduced by the end of April.

Mayor Lee will share this ordinance with the other mayors in Mayors Against Discrimination. The founding members of Mayors Against Discrimination include Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, and others.